The Collinsport Chronicles XLVIII: The Tarot Ladder
by Maryland Rose
Summary: An imprisoned Amy Jennings uses her knowledge of the Tarot to defeat Hallie, the phoenix before she can clain her husband, David, and their son Eliot, for sacrifice.
1. Chapter 1

THE TAROT LADDER

Chapter 1

It was an unusual christening., Anselm Trask thought as he prepared to conduct the service. The daughter of an over two hundred years old witch, and the Collinsport sheriff. The father was gay, and worse, the current lover of the witch's ex-husband, who was a vampire.

He'd better not think more about it, since it was hilarious, and it would not do if he were to burst into laughter in the middle of the service.

Specially when you considered the tragedy that had befallen the Collins family. David Collins was lost to the forces of evil, if not of Darkness. He had been claimed by entities which were bright and cruel, and who wanted to make him one of their own.

He sighed. They had lost David, and they had lost Amy Jennings. They spoke bravely of somehow rescuing them, but the words sounded hollow. They were helpless. Even Angelique, weakened by the delivery, offered no hope.

He saw Barnabas in the back pew, as if somewhat ashamed of being seen inside a church, and he knew that Barnabas was thinking about David, and trying to be cheerful for George's sake.

* * *

Darkness surrounded Amy. But she did not fear it. She was a daughter of the darkness. Descended from gypsies who slept under the stars, and from Quentin Collins, whose life had come under the power of the Moon.

She would find her way in the darkness, and through it she would find other ways, and doors which would lead her to victory and return.

The cards would lead her. She knew them, each and every one. And just because her eyes could no longer behold them did not mean that she had lost them. She had within her mind a deck of greater scope and power than any other she had ever owned.

She let her mind wander over the cards, one by one. Minor and Major Arcana both, not choosing their order, but letting the cards find it by themselves

The Hierophant appeared. A blessing. Kindness, generosity. But it could also be weakness, ill advised clemency to those not deserving of it. And also the need to seek the support and advice of others.

Do not go at it alone. Seek allies.

How could she seek allies, imprisoned as she was? No one would come near her unless he or she served the Sun. Or was a prisoner like herself.

Or one of the dead.

One slain by a phoenix who had not given himself or herself to Ra.

Was there a vengeful ghost who would help her, even now?

She called upon that ghost, so that she would know of its presence, so that they might plan together.

"Help me, if you are here, if you can hear me. I know that you are a friend and that we have enemies in common. Won't we join forces?

Was there a presence next to her? She wished she was more sure of it.

"If we join forces we might win this battle, and you may gain the revenge you wish for."

Then she knew that someone was with her. A man.

"You wish to gain revenge?"

"Yes." the man said "I have been trying to tell all of them what happened tome, but they did not listen. Not even my son cared. They just call it an accident, and say that it was to be expected, the way I drank."

"What is your name?"

"Robert Loomis."

"Robert Loomis. You are Willie's father."

"Yes. Not that he cares. He just tells everyone that my death was an accident. I tried to tell him the truth, but he does not want to listen to me."

"I can make him listen. I can make everyone know the truth about you and Hallie Collins. It was she who burned you, wasn't she?"

"Yes. She had those stones with her. I stole them, and she had her salamanders get them back and burn me."

"We will tell them the truth then." Amy said. "You and I will enter the realm of dreams and through it we will speak the language that they will listen to."

She had now the cards in her hands and she shuffled them.

"There will be ten cards to read the goal." she said "You must choose the first one."

Robert Loomis did so.

"It is the Fool." he said.

"Find the person who this card represents. You shall have the power to be seen and heard by this person, and to command his presence before me."

Robert Loomis studied the card. And Amy felt herself drift away from the place where she had suddenly found herself talking to a solid Loomis.

* * *

Julia checked Urien's vital signs.

"Any change?' Barnabas asked.

"No. It is still the same with him."

"Can't you help him at all? Can anybody help him?"

Julia shook her head. "It is more powerful than we are."

"I can give him my life force. Like we did the last time."

"Barnabas, not until we know that it is over. Not until we get Amy back or admit total defeat. While there is a chance to get Amy and David back, you must remain as you are,."

"You mean that I cannot save him."

There was an old pain in his voice. He had been unable to save Naomi, or Sarah, or Josette... And now he was helpless again... It was more than he could bear.

But he would have to bear it.

"Angelique should have recovered in a couple of weeks. She may be able to help then,"

"A couple of weeks might be too late."

Julia sighed. It was the best that she could do. Megan was checking among her contacts if they could get someone with experience in dealing with phoenixes... one of the advantages of living a long time, is that you got to learn a lot of things... but up to now, she had had no success.

But it was right. In a couple of weeks David would be a phoenix... and whether they could get Amy back...

"I am not blaming you, Julia." Barnabas said, helplessly. "it is just that no one cares. Not even George."

"He cares,"

'It is not the same thing. I know, he has a daughter to think of. And I have a son. Here, in a coma. And people everywhere are living their lives, enjoying themselves as if nothing had happened.."

"I know that it is unfair. But that's how it is... I have a daughter myself, and I know how George feels."

"Yes, you do... and I know that I should not begrudge the their joys. They do not begrudge me my own joys when they have sorrows. But I feel so... helpless."

* * *

David recognized her as she passed by, blindly sweeping the floors.

She was naked, and her head shaved. There was a length of chain between her ankles. She was a slave of the Temple.

"Amy!" he shouted. "Amy!"

He had brought her to this. She had tried to help him and for it, she had been reduced to this state.

"Amy!" he shouted again. "Amy, I am sorry."

Amy lifted her head, as if doubtful "Sir?" she asked, with deference. "Do you require anything from me?"

Her eyes... it was hideous to see the damage done. Her eyes would never see again.

"It is my fault, Amy. They should let you go. I will ask Hallie to let you go. There is no reason for you to suffer."

"Don't talk that way, Sir, please." Amy answered, trying to appear humble "Don't make them punish me."

David turned his face away. Even this... they had broken her.

And it was his fault. What good was he to anyone? He had not even saved his own son.

He had been doomed from birth, and any attempts to change what must be only brought disaster on those who cared.

Why was he alive? What right did he have to live?

Amy knew of his anguish, but could not relieve it. She was at the beginning of her game, one which could bring either freedom or death, and she had to play carefully. Any comfort she offered David now might doom them later.

So she went on, playing the meek slave for all of them to see.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Buffy crumpled the letter. Vicky apologized to her. For giving her the job of running the school. That she had dumped it all on her lap, in her hurry to leave Collinsport...

So Vicky had never believed her capable of running the place.

Yes. She could do several jobs there. She could teach. She could run errands. But the big job, it was not for her...

Vicky had never believed in her... For her Buffy was just a housekeeper. A housewife with some free time,. but never competent enough to make the big decisions...

She was nothing... less than nothing...

"Anything wrong?" Frank saw her, how despondent she was.

"I hope you are glad. Vicky says that I am not good enough to run the school by myself. She agrees with you and everyone else."

"And this hurts you?" He knew that he had to tread carefully around her. Say the wrong thing...

"I thought that I could..."

"Few people could do it. I know that I could not..." he sighed. "I know. Do you know how many times I was passed up for promotion, myself? How I struggled to get that promotion and never got it? Of course, there were office politics, and all that... It took me a while to accept the truth."

'What truth.?

"That I did not have what it takes to be a supervisor or a manager. That I was best on the field,... Eventually I accepted it, but it hurt to come to terms with it."

"It is not the same thing."

He sighed. :Well, so there are some things you are not good at. Some things you are good at."

"Yeah. Running errands, doing odd jobs, teaching a few classes,... I wanted more."

Frank sighed. He sensed that the less he said now, the better.

But he'd better talk to Megan, who could explain it better. Buffy had to come to accept what she could do and could not do...

* * *

It felt badly, the way she had had to answer David., Amy thought. Even if it was the only sensible thing to do, still the hurt he had felt rankled her.

If only there was a way to let him know, a way to tell him not to give up hope.

But hope, such as she could offer, was a fragile things. And the wrong move could shatter it.

Far,, far better to be cautious.

She curled up in her cot, ostensibly to sleep, but in reality shuffling the cards in her mind again.

The cards came, huge and imposing as they had become since her eyes had been burned away. And one card stood out.

Justice, holding the scales and the sword.

That was her card. Like Justice, she was blind. And like Justice she was armed, and ready to use her weapon.

The card had become a door, and she visualized herself walking towards it, opening it, entering...

* * *

Willie heard the knock at the door. He did not get up. He tried to tell himself that it was a dream, and that it would go away. But it did not. It insisted, more and more strongly.

In the end, he had to get up and see what it was.

His father stood in front of him.

"You!" Willie shouted at him. "What do you want this time? Will you ever get out of my life?"

But his father gestured and Willie was struck speechless. And the next time that his father gestured, Willie knew that he had to follow him.

They were now in a large corridor, shrouded in mist, and there was a door at the end of it.

"No!" Willie recovered his voice in his fear. "I know what this is! This is the Dream Curse, again!"

He went through the door, helpless to prevent it. His father stayed behind, and the door closed behind him.

He was not alone. There was a figure seated at the table. A woman.

It was Amy, shuffling the cards.

"Have you brought the card? The card that your father gave you?"

"Card...?" But indeed, his father had pressed something on his hand as he had gone through the door, and he had taken it.

"I... I have a card."

"Show it to me."

Willie turned up the card on the table."

"The Fool." Amy said. "This is your card. Do you know why this is your card, Willie Loomis?"

"Because..." he stopped "Amy... you are Amy... what happened to you? Is that you, for real? Did you escape?"

"No time for your questions now. Just tell me why this is your card." And this time her tone admitted no argument. Willie swallowed and answered the best he could.

"I guess because I have been a fool lately."

"Indeed you have been. You have disregarded warnings that you should have heeded."

"My father..."

"You should have listened to him. He would have guided you to our enemy."

Willie gulped again. "I have been a fool on this thing from the start. It was I who pushed Louella so that she fell under Laura's power, and now I was too scared that it would happen again that I could not think straight."

"Yes, Willie Loomis. Your folly was great. But there is a remedy for it, if you wish it."

"I wish it."

"There will be two things for you to do. One is a task that can be performed only when you awaken, not immediately, but it must be done. And for then other, you must take another card, the one who will follow the Fool, which is only the first rung of the ladder."

Willie extended his hand to the deck, but Amy stopped him. "I must tell you of your task. You must not fear it. The spread which I will build to conquer the Sun is under the Sign of Justice. Though it takes the outward form of a curse, still it is a good an needful thing. So, give yourself joyfully to your task, which is this. You will build a five pointed star out of wood. You will build it alone, at night, under the light of the moon, and with no other. And seven days from now it should be finished."

"I will do so."

"Choose now your card, Willie."

Willie pulled out a card.

"The Hierophant." Amy said "You must bring him to me, as your father brought you."

"But who is it? And how?"

"You shall know who it is, and how to enter his dreams."

"But..."

"Go back now. And do as you promised."

Hell, that was no answer. How was he supposed to know what the Hierophant meant? What if he chose wrong? Why couldn't she explain it better? Then, if he screwed up, it would be all her fault...

He woke up. The moon shone through the window, and he could feel its rays over him, like cool fingers.

He had promised... He was to help build a ladder to reach into the Sun...

* * *

It was a very pretty, very winning baby. Barnabas held her in his arms, a bit scared, since she looked so small and fragile.

And he knew that George was not too wiling to have him hold her.

That was not the only change that would come between him and George. Like it or not, George was not free anymore to do as he wished. They bond that he had with his daughter was stronger than the bond he had with Barnabas. And Barnabas had to understand it... After all, Barnabas was an adult who could shift by himself, while Georgina was wholly dependent upon his father...

But understanding did not take away the hurt.

"I never believed I would have a child of my own." George said, half apologetic.

Barnabas knew what that meant... That George was not sure that he wanted a vampire around her, even if it was him. Even if there was love between them. Even if he thought that Barnabas could be trusted...

"I envy you, George. I did have children, too, but I did not care for them, since they were just...bastards... Maybe I don't deserve to hold her now, since I abandoned my own children...

"Barnabas...George stared at him, gathering his courage. To tell him what? That he was welcome anytime to be Uncle Barnabas to the little girl? Or that it was better that he kept his distance?

Barnabas got up. "Don't make any comments to which you may be bound later."

"I didn't mean..."

"Of course, you did." Barnabas handed the baby back to George. "It is something that we have to deal with."

And he vanished.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Zeb had to come back to see Carolyn. He was not aware that he followed Hallie's dictates, only that he needed to see her. He had come with an excuse of sort in his mind. About Jessica's safety.

His mind was a muddle, lately, and he could not figure out why it was so. Why would he feel like a traitor? He had done nothing of the sort... Not like when he had followed that fake U.F.O.

He wanted to protect Jessica, and he had agreed to help when Amy had come to him He had allowed first Megan, and then Barnabas when Megan left, to feed at his wrist, and had followed all the instructions they gave him...

Too bad about Amy and David, but what had he to do with it? And now Laura and the others would leave them all alone and...

Why did he have the feeling that it was not true? Why did he feel that the did not know the whole story? Why did he dream of birds?..

Of course he dreamed of birds. Amy had been abducted by birds...

Carolyn was pleasant enough, though somewhat puzzled as to why he would want to see her.

"I feel terrible about it." he said.

"We all do." she was a bit impatient with him. He seemed to want center stage in what happened to David and Amy, and that was not the case...

But then she remembered. Jessica was pregnant, and he probably was worried about her and the child... Pregnant women were Laura's natural prey...

"At least David's son is safe." she said.

"Yes. " he hesitated "Can I see him?"

She wondered why, but shrugged. Probably having to do with his anxieties and fears. If he saw that Eliot was all right, he might calm down. For a while.

Zeb stroked the sleeping Eliot "He seems all right," he muttered. His hand touched almost casually the ward that Angelique had put there and, with a gesture which he did not know where it came from, nullified its power.

* * *

A long road lay ahead of her, Amy knew. Or rather a steep ascent on a ladder which had not been built yet. She had the Fool, the first step, but the Hierophant had to come, and then eight more of whom she knew nothing.

And at any moment the chain might break, dooming them all.

Burt she must go on, as she was Justice, blind, yet unfailing. And she had a sword which would be used...

Willie would bring the Hierophant to her tonight, and another card would be laid on the spread, another rung added to the ladder.

* * *

Willie slept, and in his dream he saw the card rising in front of him.

The Hierophant. The priest offering a blessing. And sometimes, bad advice.

And he had to know where the card led before he took it and offered it to whoever it was.

* * *

Anselm Trask slept soundly as the knock on the door came.

It was a dream, he told himself. And it would go away.

But it did not go away. It insisted, and slowly Trask found himself rising from the bed and walking towards the door, opening it...

Willie Loomis stood in front of him.

"Come with me, Trask." Willie said to him. "you are needed."

Willie took Anselm's hand and led him, with Trask's own strength gone, as he was now unwilling to resist the call.

They were out of the room, and inside a misty corridor, which led to a closed door.

"She is waiting for you there." Willie said.

"Who?"

"You will meet her. And you will give her this."

He pressed the card on Anselm's hand, as his father had done to him. Anselm took it and entered the door. Willie stayed behind, then went back to his own body, to wake up and work on the wooden star which Amy had asked him to build.

And Anselm now faced Amy.

"Good evening, Reverend." Amy said calmly "I see that Willie has chosen well, in spite of his fears."

"It is you... you escaped, is that it?"

"Have you brought the card?"

"The card?"

"The card that Willie gave you."

Anselm laid down the card on the table.

"The Hierophant" Amy said, holding it. 'Yes. This is your card. And you know why it is so?"

"Because.. because I am a priest."

"Yes. And what else?"

"Because I represent the Christian Church, which has dispensed many blessings, but also bad advice."

"Which bad advice?"

"We did not know who the real enemy was, so we thought it where it was not. We called the dark Evil, and the light Good, and thus we did not see the evil done by Creatures of Light, such as the phoenix... And we mistook those who would have been friends for enemies... Thus the Church countenanced and upheld the Evil that it should have combated. And thus there were men and women burned for heresy in sacrifice to the Lords of Light... Our good intentions were twisted and negated because of this grave error."

"Very good, Reverent. You answered well. You can lay the card next to the Fool, so that it becomes the next rung of the ladder.

Anselm did so.

"You will be needed if this evil is to be defeated."

"Tell me what I must do."

'You must allow us use of your church for our rite. You must allow a Christian Church to be used for a non-Christian rite, a rite that many would denounce as Satanic, though it is not."

"It will be witchcraft... sorcery."

"Yes, if you choose to call it so."

Anselm hesitated. The training of so many years clung to him. How could he allow his Church to be used in a Pagan, even an Occult ritual? Some may call it Satanic...

He looked at the card on the table. Blessings. And also bad advice. For all its good intentions the Church, by allying itself with creatures like Laura had brought about great damage. It was time to set it right."

"I will entrust my church to you, for your purposes."

'You trust shall not be misplaced. Now, the second thing. You must pick a card."

He did. The High Priestess.

* * *

"Have you done what I asked you?" Hallie asked Zeb, sternly.

"Yes. The protection was nullified. Nothing prevents you from taking Eliot in your arms."

"Though I may not approach him yet. there is another ward in the threshold, and others all over the house.

"Will you use me for this?"

"If needs be."

'What will happen to the child?"

"Think of what will happen o Jessica if you do not obey me."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Julia took Urien's pulse. It was no use. He had not changed since he had fallen into a coma.

"Still the same?" George asked.

"Yes."

"If I thought that this was over, I would ask you to use Barnabas' life force to bring him back."

"Yes. I thought about that."

"It would finally give Barnabas what he wanted all this time. And make things easier for me and Georgina..." George admitted. " But..."

"You know, we may not need Barnabas. We have Megan and she may recruit someone else. Like Cecily or the children... they owe me."

"Yes. But Megan is not here. She is tracking down any information that might help us, and asking anyone she knows. Until she comes back, the only vampire we have is Barnabas. The only one that cam make sure no one is compromised by _them_."

"I know..."

"I would like to investigate this. I know, I was kept out of it. Not enough supernatural powers. Just regular human. But I am a cop. I know when something looks suspicious. I know what questions to ask."

"And..."

"And how come no one wondered about Hallie Collins? Why did she show up here? She may be under their control again. She was once, same as Buffy and Frank, and Redwolf...How come no one asked her anything?"

"You think."

"I think that it is about time that we asked her some questions.

* * *

Amy prepared herself for the next dream. It was up to Anselm Trask to make the right decision and identify the High Priestess.

Willie had already succeeded in his task. And after Trask would come eight others to choose well and build a ladder strong enough to support her weight.

And, if they chose wrong, to shatter it beyond repair..

For David's sake, for Eliot' sake, for her own, they could not fail now.

* * *

Anselm thought of the card that he had drawn. The High Priestess. He had to summon her in his sleep and bring her to Amy.

He had no doubt as to who it was. It only could be Angelique. But what worried him was if he would be able to summon her as he had been asked to.

Amy told him that he could, and that it was easier than he thought, but yet he doubted that he could do such a thing.

And the nagging doubt persisted. Was he doing right in participating in Amy's rituals, which were not precisely Christian? Was that what a Christian minister ought to be doing?

Yet it must be done.

* * *

Willie rose from his bed. The moon shone in the horizon, and it was time for him to work, to finish the wooden star.

He wondered how Trask was doing, and if he would choose right the next person in the ladder.

He could not help there. All he could do, he was doing. He had to trust Amy's judgment., and Trask's.

Maybe this time they would be rid of the phoenix for good.

* * *

Angelique heard the knock on the door. She went to open it and found Reverend Trask in front of her.

For a moment it was as if he was the _other_ Reverent Trask. Or the one she met in 1897... but no, it was Anselm Trask... and yet he was not for himself, but representing something else instead.

"We need you, Angelique." Trask said. "Will you help us?"

"Yes, of course."

"Then follow me."

She did. She stepped outside her door and was not surprised to find herself in a corridor, a mist-shrouded one. It was fitting, she knew.'

She had seen those corridors before, and the doors within. She had used them for her own purposes. But she always knew that there was more to them that the use she made of them... As with all her spells... There had been so much more to them that the shallow, selfish ends she sought to satisfy through them...

Finally they reached the door, which Trask opened.

She flinched. She remembered what she had put behind doors like these. What would she find?

"Come, Angelique, you must enter."

"Is it not the Dream Curse again, is it?"

"It is not a curse. There is a good reason for it, as you shall learn. Do not be hasty in passing judgment."

Reluctantly, she approached the door and went through it. As she did, Trask's hand reached out to her and gave her a piece of cardboard, which she clutched, nervously.

The door closed behind her.

"Hello, Angelique" Amy said. "Come to me."

She did, and saw the cards lying on the table.

"You have the card with you, don't you?'

She was now aware of what she held. "Yes, I do."

"Lay it down."

She laid down the High Priestess close to the Hierophant.

"Yes. This is your card." Amy said.

"Yes, it is." Angelique admitted.

"Do you know why it is yours?'

"Because of my powers. Because of what I know and what I can do. And because I am no longer foolish in my use of them. This card means Wisdom too, and I have acquired it, thought I was slow in doing it. It has been painful to me, but I no longer use my powers to the detriment of others or of myself."

"Nor will I ask you to do so."

"Amy...Amy... is this really you or is it just a dream?"

"You know what dreams can be found here. And you know of a special destiny that was promised me. I have come upon it at last."

"Then you escaped."

"Not fully... I shall need your help for it."

"I will help you then."

"Before you do, look at the card which guides the spread which I am building."

"It is Justice."

"Remember this when the doubts come to you as to whether it is right for you to do what must be done. For without Justice, indeed, what you and I are doing is just another curse, something you have forsaken. What will you do will free me and David, and end the terror under which we live."

"Then it is fitting that I shall help you."

"Eight days from now you will go to Trask's church. He will be there and will help you. There shall be a ceremony in which you will call then power of Darkness against the power of Light."

"I shall do it."

"Good. Now for the other, thing. You must get a card from the deck."

Angelique did so.

"It is the Seven of Wands."

"There is a person in Collinsport to whom this card corresponds. Tomorrow in your dream, you must enter this persons' dreams, as Trask entered yours, and do with the Seven of Wands as Trask did with the High Priestess.

"Who is this person?"

"You will know when the time comes."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Carolyn did not disguise her hostility towards Hallie, Hallie saw it and was amused by it. According to Carolyn, all problems could be solved with a check. Or failing that, bluster. How could anyone dare question the almighty Collins family?

So she let Carolyn rant, and she answered in kind, she was rash, vulgar, and threatened again with her lawyer, and having Roger locked up for assault.

It ended up in a screaming match. Carolyn could be really insulting, and if she was not what she was, Carolyn's words would have hurt her.

Eventually Carolyn left. So sure that her checkbook would solve _all_ problems...

But Carolyn was not the danger. The danger was George Brant, whom she saw coming down the road. He would not be easy to deceive. And simple denial would not do.

What she should give him is a better suspect.

She had the time to set it up until he reached it. A minor accident to her lawyer's car could be arranged. Not lethal, but put him in the hospital with what he would call a "near miss." And in the meantime, show up teary for her interview. Do not antagonize, treat him as her savior...

Her face was set when she opened the door. "Sheriff, thank God you came, you have to help me. You have to protect Eliot!"

"Protect him?'

"From that woman. Carolyn is just David. She wants to offer him in sacrifice."

"Carolyn? Did David threaten that?"

"He wanted to sacrifice me on some rite. That's why I ran away. I did not think that he would do that to the child...You have to protect him."

Carolyn? Then the thought came to him. Carolyn was descended from Laura too. Only one eighth, as the granddaughter of Jamison Collins..."

"David told me that, and also about her first husband Jeb Hawkes, that Hawkes had told him..."

She could see the thoughts behind his eyes. There had been an eugenics experiment to make Carolyn a proper mate for a Leviathan... And part of the genetics manipulating might have to do with the phoenix inheritance.. Could Carolyn be involved?

She managed to tell him of the terror she lived in as David's wife, about his dabbing in occult games, about his desire to offer a sacrifice... About he being a Chosen...

She gave him a lot of information, and some of it he would be able to check immediately. And when the news of the accident of her lawyer came, he would be too busy wondering about Carolyn to think of Hallie as anything but a blameless victim...

* * *

Three days had passed. Three people had come to her, Amy's, summons and they were now committed to helping her. Only three of them with seven more to go. But the seven would come too. And with the tenth, she would strike.

In the meantime, in her waking hours she had to wear the mask of the meek, broken slave. She had to be very careful there, not let her impatience betray her.

She wondered if Angelique would realize who the Seven of Wands was? But why could she fail? Willie had not failed, neither had Trask, and they did not have as much knowledge. If they could see it, so could Angelique.

She should not fear it so much when the thread of her dream passed temporarily out of her control. The thread was a sea current, slow but powerful, that she had to ride, not inter clay for her to shape as she wished.

Willie had come. Trask had come. Angelique had come. The fourth will also come.

And when the pattern was complete...

She did not know what would come afterwards. But one thing she knew. David would no longer be part of her life. Her life was meant to be otherwise.

* * *

"How could you have gotten my name?" Quentin asked Zeb, annoyed.

"The usual way we get it." Zeb said, sighing.

"Who was it? She lied. It could not have been me."

"Mr. Collins, forgive me, but with your track record, I have difficulty believing it. Maybe this time you forgot to give a false name."

"Maybe someone else gave a false name."

"Well, maybe. But if you let me conduct the test, then we'll know for sure. Either you give negative, so I know to look for someone else. Or it gives positive, in which case I shoot antibiotics into you, and get a complete list of sexual partners.."

"I have been very restrained lately I am no longer tomcatting the way I used to."

"Very commendable. But the thing about VD is that sometimes it takes a single exposure if it is the wrong one. Look, it is to your benefit to find out. "

Quentin mulled it. He _had_ overreacted. Not everything was a question whether or not he had let his former bad habits behind...

As Zeb said, once might be enough.

"I am sorry." he finally said. "I should not have reacted as I did." He pushed up his sleeve. "Go ahead. And let me know how it comes out."

Zeb took a blood sample from him. He kept reassuring Quentin as he left the clinic, then took the blood sample away.

She would give it to Hallie later on.

Getting the blood sample from Barnabas might be a tougher proposition. Sneaking in would not be so easy, what with George Brant coming in at any time, and the nurse who cared for Urien.

But he would get that sample. Jessica's safety depended on it.

* * *

Adam saw Edmund hanging over the railing, pouting again, and looking bored.

The expression that said. "Everyone is around that stupid baby and they have forgotten me."

Well, Edmund needed cheering up and reminding to grow up.

And if he did that, then Carolyn would finally be grateful to him, and recognize all he had done. Then she would at last approve of him.

...If she was not too busy with the baby...

Too bad that he could not bring Vicky back. Vicky had written to him. Politely. Accepting his apology, but with an undertone of bitterness.

Vicky was bitter. Not just with him. With Carolyn... he realized it now. And making peace between the two would not be so easy as he thought it would be.

At least he painted. At least he did not get violent any more. And he was getting along better with Edmund. Why couldn't Carolyn see it?

Could Carolyn see anything that was not that baby?

He went to Edmund. Another painting lesson would keep both of them busy and in a good mood.

And eventually Carolyn had to see what he had been doing with himself.

* * *

Angelique closed her eyes, her mind concentrating on the Seven of Wands, and on the person it corresponded. Had she chosen right? Too much hung in the balance.

Yet she had done all she could. She must now close her eyes and enter the region of dreams. There she must choose the door to knock.

She knew that the choosing was not wholly her own. It was a great subterranean wave which carried her, which carried all of them, summoned by Amy's will.

* * *

Buffy began to drift into sleep, the words in Vicky's letter running through her mind. And Frank's words. And Trask's words... Could they be right?

Then the knock came at her door.

She roused herself and went to answer it. Angelique stood there, beckoning her.

"What is it?' Buffy asked alarmed. "What do you want?

"We need you, Buffy."

"Need me? Why? How?"

"Follow me."

Buffy wanted to protest, but she didn't. It was important, very important, she felt. Maybe it had to do with Laura...

They were now in the corridor, in the mists. Buffy looked around, worried, wanting to ask Angelique more, trying to make sense of it, but knowing that she must keep silent. She would find out soon enough.

They reached the big door at the end of the corridor, the mist parting before them.

The door opened and Buffy knew that she must enter, alone. Instinctively she extended her hand to Angelique who put the card in it.

"Amy!" Buffy said, being finally able to speak. "It is you. You are free. You..."

Amy shook her head "Have you the card with you?"

"This card?" Buffy said, laying it down close to the High Priestess.

"This is your card, then Buffy Torrance?"

"Yes, it is."

"On what basis do you claim this card as yours?"


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"Because it is Wands, reflecting the life I lead." she said, suddenly at peace "A life dedicated to seemingly routine tasks, with neither success as the world defines it, nor riches, nor exceptional knowledge. Because I have to accept to take life as it comes and try to enrich it a little bit. Not heroic, nor shiny... It does not burn bright into the night, but it can give off warm and comfort. Small everyday duties, small, everyday pleasures, and slow growing."

"Go on."

"Because I have a child and Wands are the cards of such growth. And Seven of Wands because it describes a serious situation, where the troubles threaten to overwhelm the central wand, which is me. But the cards tell me that I am greater than they are. That I can handle them."

"You have answered well. Now listen to me, Buffy Torrance. There is danger about you. The fire, and you know which it is. You know that you are vulnerable to it and why. But I will show you how to defeat it."

'What must I do?"

"You will gather certain herbs and hang them to dry. You will give them to the person who will come ask for them. Gather then at night, and grind then in a dark hidden place, where the light of day does not reach them. The only light safe for you is moonlight."

"I will do so.:"

"There is a second duty for you to perform" she shuffled the deck. "You must pick a card."

Buffy picked a card. She shrank in fear.

"Why are you afraid?"

"It is the Tower of Destruction. Does it mean...?"

"We can't tell you what it means, except this. You must find the person to whom this card corresponds as the Seven of Wands corresponded to you. Then you must enter that person's dreams, as Angelique entered yours. You mutt bring this person to me, and hand him or her the card as you open my door."

"But who will I know who is it?"

"You will know."

* * *

David, from his cage, saw the hustle and bustle around him. Something important was going to happen soon and they were getting ready for it.

He knew what that 'something important' was. Hallie would enter the fire holding Eliot in her arms, with her husband at her side...

If Ra willed it, they would all be reborn as phoenixes... No, Eliot would not be reborn. He would burn and die. Hallie would be reborn. And he... he might too, if Ra was pleased.

And he would be a creature of Light, cruel and implacable...

And what could he do about it?

Here he was, caged, to keep from escaping and trying to rescue Eliot... And yet treated with all the courtesy and consideration that was due a Crown Prince...

A Crown Prince. Son of Laura. Husband to Hallie. Born to become a phoenix in spite of the ignorant opposition of his family. His was a glorious destiny, and he should know better than to fight it.

Yet he wanted to fight it.

But he could not... He could not save himself. He could not save Eliot..

And then he would be like them.

What would it be like when he had changed? Would he look upon mere humans with scorn? Would he hate Barnabas and Chris, as they were Creatures of Darkness?

What would he become?

* * *

Willie, Trask, Angelique, Buffy. The cards came to the table and grew into a ladder. The next step would be the Tower of Destruction, and the one who would bear it was still a mystery to her.

But Amy knew that Buffy would not fail to find whoever it was.

She had curiosity about it, not just as to who would that person be, but beyond it.

Would that she was trying to accomplish succeed? Yes, if she did not make any mistakes, if she did not betray herself.

And beyond... what lay behind it?

It was not just David's fate, nor Eliot's that was at stake. Her own future was being laid out... No one could go up the tarot ladder as she meant to do, and return the same...

What was she becoming?

* * *

Zeb went to the Old House. No one was there to see him do it. George had not come yet, and the nurse who cared for Urien had nodded off too sleep. The sun resting on her face had made her drowsy, as Hallie had promised him.

No one was there to ask him inconvenient questions...

The lock was no problem. The moment his fingers touched it, the bolt moved by itself, opening the way for him.

He was in, completely alone, and he could not help a shiver when he looked around the large foyer, with the portrait on the mantel, and the useless mirror in the hall.

He could not explain it to himself, but there was something about the house that made him uncomfortable. There had been too many tragedies already. And the evil that was done here would not truly go away, thought some of it might be transmuted. It was here that Barnabas has shot Angelique and she had summoned to bat to attack him. Here Jeremiah's ghost has stalked Angelique. Here that Bathia Mapes had tried to lift the curse from Barnabas and died for it. Here Suki Forbes had died... Here...

He shook his head. Yes, there were plenty of tragedies in this house, but what did it concern him? It had been none of his doing, those crimes of yesterday, and they did not threaten him.

All he had to do was find Barnabas, get a blood sample out of him, and get out before the nurse woke up.

The coffin was in the room behind the library, and he knew how to get in.

The door swung open and he entered the room.

He prepared the hypodermic and then ran his hand over the exposed parts of Barnabas' body, seeking a place to tap.

The irony of it did not escape him. He was doing what Barnabas himself had done before, had probably done the night before...

Only it was somehow different.

Different how?

He did not like the answer, that he might be condemning Barnabas to death by it. He tried to convince himself that it mattered little, and there was no reason why Barnabas should suffer any ill effects.

Only he somehow knew that it was not true. The layers of lies that were build around his mind crumbled enough to let him see what lied behind.

What laid behind was that Jessica would die if he did not do this. That he had no choice in the matter.

What would happen to Quentin? What was the point in the blood sample he had taken from him? That was not a death sentence. It was something else.

Why was he doing the things he did? Why did he have a conviction that he as a traitor, and that Jessica's life hung in the balance?

He knew it, but he did not know how he knew. He did not know _what_ he knew. It was as if he was a puppet, pulled by strings. And the more he pressed his questions, the more he heard a cruel laughter ringing in his ears. A name threatened to come to his lips, but it never did.

And why should this happen to him in the first place? What had he ever done to earn it?

Nothing, maybe, except having once hated Barnabas beyond common sense, and made himself vulnerable through that hatred.

He did not like the answer. He did not like the answer that he was getting lately. And he did like less to know that he would be getting more and more of them, and that laughter would go on ringing in his ears until he finished lying to himself, and beheld the hideous truth.

He took the blood sample from the neck, just as Barnabas did, as if that somehow justified his actions.

Then he left he room and closed the door behind him. The house was silent, just as it had been when he had come in. No one to explain things to. No one but himself.

* * *

Night fell and Buffy knew that she had to enter the realm of dreams again. She had gathered the herbs quickly last night, and they were drying in a dark corner, as she had been instructed. Now she had to find the way to the person to whom the Tower of Destruction belonged. When she closed her eyes and drifted into sleep, she would know who that person would be.

And yet she doubted. What if it went wrong? What if the confidence that Amy had placed in her was misplaced?

Like Vicky's...

No, it was not the same. Vicky had explained it to her. In her hurry to get out of town she had not looked for a person qualified, just dumped it on her, because she was there and eager to please. She had put an unfair burden on her, and was very sorry for it...

It was not the same with Amy...

She laid on the bed, closing her eyes, commanding herself to stop worrying needlessly and do what she had been instructed to do.

And the dream came and she was floating over Collinsport, and as she did, she passed the house which she knew was the one at whose door she had to knock.

Jessica heard the knocking and went to answer it.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

"This is indeed the card" Amy told Jessica. "And you claim it."

"It was given to me, so I must be the one to claim it."

"Do you know why this card was given to you?"

"Because I am close to great danger. Because I may, unwittingly become the source of great danger. Because of the child I carry and the bond that Zeb once had with Laura."

"Yes. Though you did not wish the evil, it might come because of you. So it must be that you have been chosen to be one who will help push the evil back again. The risk is greater for you than for anyone else. But the risk of doing nothing is greater still."

"So I have to do as you say."

"For the safety of all."

"What must I do?"

"Go to Buffy as you leave here, and take the herbs which she has ground, Deadly Nightshade is one of them. Bring them , by moonlight, and add some to some blood samples that your husband keeps in the refrigerator, in the back."

"Those vials..."

"They hold nothing that pertain to your work. Zeb is more involved that he knows. He is nota aware of what he does, or why he does it, except by flashes."

"My husband..."

"You are the Tower, Jessica. You can be the gate that leads to destruction, or you can be the source of strength that will sustain us. Which will you be:?'"

Jessica did not hesitate. "I shall be your strength."

"Good. Now take a card for the next person to come."

It was the Page of Wands.

* * *

The bars would not budge. Strain as he did against them, he was helpless to make them open enough, so that he could escape.

Why didn't he give up? It was no use. He had tried. They had all tried, and no good had come of it. All it ever did was doom Amy...

Yet for all that, he had to continue struggling. Maybe he'd get lucky. Maybe he'd get a chance...maybe.

Whatever it was, he could not let Hallie take him to the fire without a struggle, if not for himself, then for Eliot.

Maybe this one bar was loose... maybe if he tried hard enough..

Amy passed by, sweeping ahead the floor that she could not see. David moaned to see her thus.

He should break the bar, he should break free, take Amy with him, and flee. He had to put all his strength at once on the bar, even if it killed him, and not let go until the bar gave.

Amy knew that he was struggling, and guessed what must be going through her mind because of her presence.

A mad desire came over her. What if he broke free? What if they both escaped? They might have a chance... Yes, of course, she was still holding the ladder, in her dreams. The ladder promised freedom. But it had its own risks. Hallie had already taken Quentin's blood before Jessica could add the powder... Not Barnabas, thankfully, and that had been treated. When Zeb added Chris and Oriana's blood they would also be treated by the time Zeb gave them to Hallie...

But what if Jessica could not figure out who the Page of Wands was? Why not take a chance with David?

Because the Tower of Destruction had arisen in the spread. Because there was danger in impatience. She must not give in, no matter what the temptation.

David strained further, pushing the bar, feeling how it gave, knowing that he would be free soon.

"Amy, we are going to make it."

He might. And take her with him and...

The bar broke, and acting as if she was startled by the noise, she dropped the broom and screamed.

'No, Amy, don't scream. It is me. We are going to get out of here."

She screamed, louder and louder, as if in panic, making herself drop to the floor, refusing to go with him.

"Amy... Amy... come with me. Hurry up, or they will catch us."

She struggled as she heard the footsteps arriving. She felt's David's hand clamp on her mouth, and then the blow on her head. She knew that he was carrying her and then that he had stopped...

David struggled, held by the Golden Falcon.

"Why did you fight?' he asked, bitterly, to Amy. "We could have made it out of here, the both of us."

"You could not. And she knew that she would be severely punished if she helped you." Hallie kicked the semi-unconscious Amy, who whimpered at the blow. "She knows her place, and so she behaved accordingly." she looked at the cage. "You did break the bar, didn't you?"

'Yes. Anything not to be with you."

"I believe you. But you have no choice in the matter. You will be put in a stronger cage, that's all."

David protested as he was led away.

"It is your heritage, David. Do not fight it. Rejoice instead in it."

Amy whimpered again, and Hallie kicked her, not roughly, jus to remind her what she was, and where she was.

Then she left, to take care of two businesses that she could not postpone. Take possession of Quentin, and keep George Brant from looking too hard in her direction.

The glistening wall into which she was looking became transparent, and through it she could see what George Brant was doing.

Brant probably by now had heard of her lawyer's car accident. He would still be in the hospital, and charged with drunk driving. That would make her suspect Carolyn even more. A bit more nudging, and Brant would take the legal route to get Eliot back to his mother...

At the moment Brant was talking with Derek Pearce...

Brant's face was grim. He evidently did not like what Pearce was telling him... probably about Egg City (she had heard about it.) Seems that there problems there...

George felt uncomfortable hearing about the problems. He should do something about them. He should go there and check by herself. But with all the things going on, with her daughter, and what Barnabas had gone through, it had slipped her mind.

Still, the situation could deteriorate fast. If he did not make time for it soon, it would reach the point of no return.

He continued interrogating Derek. Up to now, Howard's opposition to his ideas were grounded on reasonable grounds. But for how much longer? He said that he wanted to make sure that they would not be sold into prostitution before he allowed Derek to bring women out of the egg... He insisted that training programs for young people should lead to make the egg more self sufficient... And if there were scheduling conflicts with those programs with the classes that Derek taught, well, the training programs took priority...

But Derek quite often could not object. Because both Frances and Roxanne backed Howard... And Patterson was not enough of a counterweight...

Add to it the young men who worshipped Howard to the point of losing their judgment, and that they handled weapons...

He had to go there..

As soon as the solstice passed, as soon as he had returned Eliot to his mother...

Strange that Roxanne did not back Derek. Or rather to be expected. Howard was just too dashing...Maybe she thought that she had married the wrong one... Or Howard was already married, and Derek was second best.

"Maybe if we had children..." Derek said. "But we can't. Vampirism can sterilize you, and the fact that you go back to normal does not change that..."

"You know that I have a daughter?"

"A daughter? How?"

Hallie stopped watching. She had learned what she sought. George was too torn between different claims, and could not concentrate on any of them. And he no longer suspected her.

It was time now to take control of Quentin. She would hold drinking Barnabas' blood as well that of the tow werewolves until the solstice, when she came to claim Eliot.

Now it was Quentin's time.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Quentin saw the golden bird come towards him. He ducked, remembering what he had been told of such golden birds, and what had happened to Amy and David. He did not think it would come for him. It had to be Chris or Oriana. Or Angelique...

He had to warn them.

The bird came closer and Quentin could see how beautiful it was. Beautiful, yet deadly.

It moved closer and closer. He looked around. No one seemed to notice that it was there. There were not screams, no comments, nothing...

Only he could see the falcon, Because the falcon had come for him...

He screamed as the falcon crashed against him. And then he did not scream anymore, even thought the falcon's claws dug into him.

A face rose in front of him. A woman's face.

"You will do as I tell you, Quentin Collins" Hallie said " You have no other choice."

* * *

The Page of Wands was next in the spread. Tonight she would see if Jessica had chosen well for this, or if she had made a dreadful mistake in not trying to escape with David.

They could have made it, the two of them. Why had she thrown the opportunity away?

She knew better than to believe it. It would have been a disaster if she had gone along with David. But her body screamed differently. She had been beaten later because of her clumsiness, and she could not help thinking that she would have been spared this if she had run away with David.

Finally her self-control took over. She had to enter the region of dreams, where her eyes beheld the figures of the deck once more, where she was free and a priestess, and where she directed the thread that dictated events around her.

Tonight Jessica would bring the Page of Wands. And again the deck spoke to her. For the Page of Wands meant steadfastness, and so she must remain. She must keep to the course that was traced to her, no matter what the temptation."

* * *

Jessica snuck in from the kitchen where she had added the herbs to two more vials that Zeb had brought in. One marked C. and another O. , and the older one was marked B... That done she could lie down on the bed and try to bring the true Page of Wands to Amy.

Like all the others who came before her, she worried as to her ability to recognize the one that she must summon. What if she chose wrong? What if it was her who wrecked the spread that Amy was laying on the table?

She had been reassured that knowledge would come to her, and that she must welcome it.

She thought of Zeb with pity. He was involved, even unwittingly, and he had ever wanted was to protect her. Her and the baby, who would be born soon.

She did not think anymore. She floated upwards, and entered the region of dreams in search of the Page of Wands.

* * *

Edmund slept uneasily. There was a sense of danger, of waiting, that he could not shake. And it had to do with Eliot, and the way he felt about it...

He was too old to be jealous of baby, but he was...

He was supposed to grow up, everyone told him...

He drifted in and out of dreams, the dreams escaping before they took shape...

At last there was a knock at the door.

Mrs. King - Doctor King, rather, was there, smiling at him.

"Doctor King..." he said "how..."

"You must come with me, Edmund Collins."

"But..."

"Come with me. We need you."

His objections, if he had any, were gone. And he was following her. They were now in a long corridor which was full of mist, so much that you could not see where you were putting your feet.

And at last there was a door, which began to open slowly as he approached it.

"You must go in, alone." Jessica said "she is waiting for you."

"She?" Edmund asked. He went in willingly and took the card that Jessica gave him.

The door closed behind him.

"Edmund" Amy said. "Come closer."

Edmund did.

"Show me your card."

"This card Dr. King gave me?"

"Yes. Lay it on the table."

Edmund did, next to the Tower.

"Do you claim in?"

"It was given to me, so it must be mine."

"On what grounds do you claim it?'

"Well, it _is_ a young man. And he is sort of standing guard, as if he does not know what is going to happen, but still he expects it, and wants to know what he can do about it."

"As you are. You know that there is evil gathering at Collinwood, and you want to know what you can do about it."

"And it is also me, because I will no longer be a child, and I wonder what the years will bring, but I am willing to meet them. Wands stand for living, growing things, and the wand that the boy has is now tall enough that he can support his weight on it without bending."

'Very good, Edmund. Now, if you are to be steadfast in the evil that threatens those around you, there are two things that you must do."

"Which are they?"

"Tonight, by moonlight, go to the nursery where Eliot sleeps. You will snip a lock of his hair, you will also clip one or two fingernails, and then take two or three drops of blood."

"He may wake up when I do that."

"I will teach you the words that you must say so that he will keep sleeping until you are done. Staunch the blood with this linen.." She gave it to him. "And use it to wrap the hair and fingernail clippings. Those you will keep till I call on you to give them to whoever I point to you,."

"I will do it, though it makes no sense."

"You are young, Edmund." Amy smiled. "But don't worry. Before long it will make sense."

"I guess so. What is this other thing you want me to do?"

"You must take a card from the deck."

Edmund pulled out the Queen of Coins.

"Now what?"

"Now you must go back carrying it. Tomorrow you will know who this card represents, and you will do with this person as Jessica King did with you."

"Who is it?"

"You will know when the time comes."

"It is crazy..."

"But it will work."

'Yeah. So you say..."

"You must do it in your dreams. You must enter the dreams of the Queen of Coins and bring her here."

Edmund grumbled, but Amy was not there anymore. He was back in his bed,. And he had a linen in his hand.

He still did not believe it, but still he snuck out of bed, and went to Eliot's nursery.

The baby slept quietly. For a moment jealousy flared un in Edmund. Then it was gone. Eliot was just a baby that deserved projection. And he was here to protect him... He was a grown up and should behave like one...

Getting the lock of hair was not hard at all, but there might be problems with the fingernail parings and the blood. He hummed the words that Amy had let him know.

"Sleep, sleep, now pretty baby.

Sleep, baby bunting

"Sleep, sleep, my pretty baby,Sleep and dream my small child.

The evil one has been a-hunting

But you are safe here, so sleep now."

Eliot did not change position. He seemed to sleep more deeply. Edmund pared a couple of fingernails. Then used a pin to prick the finger. One drop, two, three...

He kissed the finger, and wound closed...

It was done. Eliot had now awakened. Now he would taken the linen and its contents, and wait until Amy asked it of him.

And tomorrow he would beckon the Queen of Coins, whoever she was.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

"No change yet." Barnabas told Julia.

"No. And you did not expect any." she said, dryly. "Angelique already told you that nothing can be done until after the solstice. We need you as you are until then. You know, it is only a few days away."

"I know it."

"But you don't want to accept it. I warn you, don't get impatient, or you may end up regretting it. Bitterly. You will be full of remorse and self-recrimination. But the damage will be done."

Barnabas sighed. "I feel like I am betraying him, doing nothing to help him, living my life, as if he did not matter., as if he had never existed."

"Barnabas, he is not you, you are not your father, and you are not condemning him to eternity, just a few more days. And he does not know what is happening, unlike you."

"Are you sure that he knows nothing?"

"I am sure." Julia thought how much she wanted to kick some sense into Barnabas. "Tell me, why do you like to torment yourself? It is that you are a guilt junkie? Or you think that things will get one bit better if you punish yourself?' Or it is just that if you don't get your daily guilt fix you go into convulsions?"

"Julia.."

"I am sorry, but you have to be told, sooner or later."

"It is that I feel so helpless."

"We all feel helpless. But we do not make public spectacles of ourselves the way you do."

* * *

Hallie stretched on her bed. She wondered when she would be able to sleep in the Temple instead of her bed down here...

Not until she had walked into the flame, with her husband and child.

She was not one of them, not yet. For all her powers she had not made the defining sacrifice...and until she did, Ra could reject her and let her feel His wrath...

But in a few days it would be over. She would walk into the flame...

And she would kill Barnabas, to collect on what he owed her when she had been Maude Browning... It was not just to control him that she had wanted his blood. The blood of the werewolves, yes, because it meant that they could not strike against her. But Barnabas... she could make him really suffer. She could make it so that it was him who threw Eliot into the flames...

But that was for later. She had to check on her pawns. Urien was useless, but at least he could not testify against her, and his life force was needed for the golden birds to manifest themselves in this plane. Zeb, she considered releasing. He was too irritating a person, and Carolyn would not be so willing to let her in to undo all the wards around Eliot.. Better let him go, and make him lose all memories of his helping her, just let him think it had all been part of strange dreams. Quentin... Quentin could come into Collinwood, and Carolyn would gladly welcome him...

And Sheriff Brant was the best pawn of all, because she did not control him. Just deceived him in thinking that Eliot would be safest with her. With luck Brant could deliver Eliot into her hands...

So much to do, And the days coming so close... But she would have all done by the time the solstice was upon her.

* * *

"Are you sure that's what you need?" Megan asked Angelique on the phone.

Angelique knew that she would have a lot of explaining to do when Megan came back, for sending her on a wild goose chase. But if Amy had not let her into the plan, then she had been kept out of it. Amy was running this show not her.

"Yes. I went over Stokes' notes and found notation about Nazi connections with the cult of the Phoenix. They copied Cathar rituals and other Gnostic disciplines. They used solar symbols... The swastika is a sun symbols.""

"There are always Nazi connections in all occult stuff. They messed up with practically everything. That does not mean they ran the show."

"But think about it. Do you realize that the Collinses are a genetic experiment? Why did the Leviathans wanted Carolyn? Because of her heritage, part of which was phoenix... And god knows what from the Stoddard side... And Jeb Hawkes was a blue eyed blond, mating with a blue eyed blonde... Doesn't that tell you anything."

"If you want someone who knows about Nazis, why not ask Howard? He lived it."

"His experience was... different of what I need. Try to find someone who knew of participated on some Nazi rituals, and is willing to talk about it."

Megan growled. "All right, I'll ask around. But you and I are going to have a talk when I get back home."

* * *

George cradled Georgina in his arms. He felt a bit guilty for enjoying this instead of helping out Hallie, or worrying about Egg City. (Ovopolis, Howard had taken to calling it). But still, Georgina was his daughter...

Who said that he could not take at least a few minutes off? The solstice was not upon them yet. And if the law did not help, he could always take Eliot at gunpoint and give him to Hallie... As for Ovopolis... well, the news that Derek gave him were worrying, but nothing urgent yet. He could try to come up with a better plan that barging in like a bull in a China shop.

Georgina was his child. That was all that mattered... And it was about time that he learned to set up priorities. He could not go on barging on every little thing that needed fixing while forgetting his own child...

He was a father. It was time that he learned to think and behave like one.

Georgina was his responsibility. And she was to be the number one priority in his life. The rest, while important, had to learn to take second place...

Hallie saw this from the golden wall that allowed her to spy on the Collinsport inhabitants it the daytime. George Brant could be useful to her. Or not. But he would not be a threat, which was what mattered.

Enough of Brant. It was time that she checked on Quentin. Because Quentin was the one who had to remove the wards from inside Collinwood..

Quentin's mind was in a daze, his body moving automatically, without his willing it. He was aware of what was happening to him, and why, but he was a paralyzed spectator, watching how his body went through the motions. His chest throbbed where the bird had hit him...

Why him? Why had he been chosen?

And why hadn't they had him bit by Barnabas or Megan. Those two would have known that there was something wrong with him, and stopped him...

But he had thought he had not needed it. His own relationship with Laura had ended, and he had turned against her. Why should he worry?

He should have worried. He should have remembered how relentless a creature that returned century after century could be...

Collinwood came up closer and closer. He sensed the wards set around the house. And his fingers and lips knew what to do with them. A few muttered words, a few quick gestures, and their power was gone...

There would be other wards, and he would deal with them the same way. It would not be so difficult to charm Carolyn into allowing him to walk through the house, if only to satisfy his nostalgia. He knew that Carolyn would refuse him nothing, and he knew why...

Unless she and Adam had truly grown closer...

When Carolyn threw her arms around his neck he knew that the reconciliation between Carolyn and Adam had not yet taken place... that she still saw him as a prospect.

Ordinarily he would have flinched, tried to talk sense into her, reminded her of her avowed purpose to make a life with Adam...

But he was not the one to choose. Hallie was. And Hallie needed him walking through the room, removing wards...

"Come Quentin" Carolyn said. "We have much to talk about."


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Adam saw Quentin leave., and Carolyn go with him to the door.

Quentin had not come to see him. He did not know if that hurt him more than Carolyn not calling on him with Quentin came...

So what was he going to do about it? Go to his room, brood, think about mermaids again?Or try to tell Carolyn how he felt about it?

Sure, and if she rejected him...

If she rejected him, how much worse off would he be?

He came down to the foyer.

"So Quentin was here." he said to her.

"Yes, he was."

"And none of you thought to call me?"

"Why? Are you jealous?"

"No. Tired. Tired of being ignored. What happened to all your promises that we were going to have a real marriage at last?"

"I have been... busy."

"Yes. The new baby. Edmund noticed already. That he is old news. Same as me... Something more interesting came along, and we no longer exist."

"Adam, it is not that."

"You know, Carolyn, I have been trying all these times. And you did not notice. Edmund and I are friends now. I am teaching him to paint, and I have him sitting for me in a new painting... You know if I was child molester who wanted to use him,, I would have gotten away with it and you would not have cared.. As long as we kept out of your way, you were happy."

"We have had problems in the past, I agree."

"Yes. Because of Roger. But it is not Roger, it is you... Vicky is right."

"Vicky?"

"Yes. I wrote to her. I apologized for attacking Phillip who was only trying to warn me. Edmund also wrote to her, saying that he was sorry for the trouble he gave her... She was gracious with both of us. But, and I quote "I cannot be friends with Carolyn. Not while she thinks that all problems are solved with a checkbook.".

"She has no right to say it."

"She has it. She go to know you well. And I am beginning to myself."

"Adam!:"

"We promised we'd try to make a marriage. I tried. You just don't care. And frankly, I am beginning to wonder if it is worth it. If you are worth it."

* * *

Night was about to fall and Edmund's mind went back to the Queen of Coins. Who could she be? It was a she. Why, it was a Queen...

But he had to get it right. It was important that he did. And he was very much afraid of failing there.

Amy had reassured him that it would be easy, that the moment his eyes closed and he began drifting, the answer would come to him.

But suppose it did not work?

* * *

Amy too was getting ready to sleep, her day's chores being done. She let go of her impatience, of her anguish and her yearning. She must be clear headed for what she had to do.

She was the Sybil of the Dream Corridor. She was the one who could handle the very special deck that was forbidden to others. Such a person as she was could not let her emotions dictate to her.

Tonight Edmund would led the Queen of Coins to her, and she would be able to add another rung to her ladder.

If Edmund chose right. She knew the danger of involving a child. The others, for all their fears and misgivings, never doubted that what she told them would come true. Not Edmund. He was skeptical of what she could do, and more important, of what _he_ could do. He might decide that the whole thing was a bad joke. It was not likely, but it could happen.

Be she could do nothing about Edmund now. She had trusted him, and she must abide by her own judgment. Edmund would come through, as the others had.

She drifted into sleep, as the Tarot cards rose in front of her, became huge, and then turned into doors that she had to cross.

And then she was in front of the table, the ladder she was building undisturbed in front of her, and the deck next to it.

She had to wait for the Queen of Coins to arrive.

* * *

Carolyn thought about Adam's words... It stung her what he had said, what Vicky had said.

It was not true, none of it. If Adam was tried of her, well, he needed an excuse to leave her... And Vicky.. That was envy from her, because she was a poor orphan and wanted what Carolyn had...

And yet...

No, there was nothing wrong with her...

There was a knock at the door.

She got up to see who it was.

"Come with me, mother." Edmund said.

"What is it? What's wrong?"

"Just come with me."

Carolyn followed him, a bit dazed.

It was only when she was in the corridor that she remembered and drew back.

"No! I am not going! Let's go back, Edmund!"

"You must come."

"No.! It is the Dream Curse again!"

"It is not. You must come with me."

"I won't" She held Edmund and shook him. "You don't understand what is happening. It is a curse. People will keep having this same dream, and the last one to have it will die."

"It is not a curse."

"What else can it be?"

"She will explain it to you."

"She? Who? Angelique?"

"No. You must meet her."

"I won't"

"You must." he stared at her, hard, and Carolyn's resolve weakened. She still protested, but she followed him, till they reached the door.

The door opened.

"I will not go in... I will not..." she repeated.

But she stepped in, and accepted the card that Edmund gave her.

The door closed behind her.

"You!" she said to Amy "It is you casting this curse?""

"It is no curse. It is a proper judgment." She pointed to the Justice card over the ladder.

"Judgment?"

"For David's kidnapping and mine. For the threat to Eliot."

Carolyn stared at her. "Of course..."

"Has Edmund given you your card?"

"Yes."

"Show it to me."

Carolyn laid the card, as understanding came to her.

"Do you claim this card?"

"I do."

"On what grounds do you claim it?"


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

"Because it is a card of wealth, and I am a wealthy woman. Because I let my wealth dictate my behavior. Because I think that wealth solves my problems. I am the Queen of this town, though my power has diminished with time. And because I am so busy contemplating wealth and the things it buys that a lot of times I do not have eyes for anything else."

"It is a good card, when accompanied with wisdom." Amy reassured her.

"I have not always been wise.? Why have you brought me here? To shame me?"

"No, to complete the ladder. The end of it is freedom for David and myself, as well as the destruction of our enemy. You need not worry that innocent people will suffer for it."

"I know..." But she was grateful for Amy's reassurance.

"Your help will be needed for this end."

"I am willing to do all you ask of me."

"Your task will be a dangerous one. The others of whom I demanded help, did their tasks at night, away from the prying eyes of the Sun. It will not be so with you. You must face the enemy who moves about in disguise. You must strike that person, as in anger, and staunch her bleeding so that some of her blood will stain a piece of linen I will give you."

"Who is this person?"

'You will know when you are face to face. The knowledge will give you the anger to strike the blow, and then cunning to hide your true purpose."

"But you will not tell me..."

"When the moment comes, you will know."

"I see."

"You must also choose a card."

Carolyn took it.

"The Hanged Man" she said "what does it mean?"

"This is the person whose dreams you have to enter tomorrow, and bring to me, the way Edmund brought you to me."

"Who is it?"

"This too, you must find for yourself."

"You don't give me much to go on."

"What you need to know, you know. More knowledge might be dangerous to you."

"But..."

Amy shook her head, and Carolyn found herself in her bed..

With a clean linen at her bedside.

* * *

Jessica checked the refrigerator. There were no new vials of blood there. Good. That might mean that Zeb's role was over.

He probably was not aware of the things he did, and she thought that it would be cruel to tell him afterwards what he had done...

But first they had to get over the solstice...

* * *

The Hanged Man. Carolyn worried about that. Not that she might miss its meaning, but that she might find out. for if she did, she would have to ask herself why the man was hanging, and what she had to do with it...

Still, she had promised Amy that she would do it, and she would keep her promise, if nothing else, for David's sake.

If only she was not so sure that he knew who he was and why...

* * *

Hallie felt content. Things were going well. She knew that Angelique had put one more barrier outside Collinwood, probably worried as the solstice approached, but she had not checked her other wards.. It would be an easy thing to have Quentin remove it before she came claim Eliot...

And then,, then she would inherit Laura's crown and gain revenge on Barnabas at the same time.

She remembered that Carolyn said she would come by. To discuss the custody suit she had started. Another round of name-calling. Maybe Carolyn had come upon some information that she thought she could use. Or maybe she thought that by writing a check she could get rid of the whole problem...

It was time that Carolyn learned that her checkbook did not have all the answers..

Carolyn came in, very pale. Her eyes met with Halle's, and her face took an expression of pure hatred.

Hallie smiled at that. Yes, Carolyn Collins did hate her. How dare she do what she did to the precious Collins family? Not that she could do anything about it...

They spoke few words, without any pretense to politeness. Halllie repeated her assertion that he wanted Eliot safe from his weird relatives, and mentioned that there had been a reasons why Carolyn had been sterilized.

Carolyn slapped her savagely, to avenge the insult, and Hallie accepted it, amused. More fuel to the fire when it came to trial, she said.

Carolyn seemed embarrassed at losing control, and was amused by it. She let Carolyn try to patch up by solicitously staunching her blood. It was fun to see her so lost, so without recourse...

Hallie thought that, if the solstice was not over them already, she could take Eliot legally...

* * *

So that was the enemy, Carolyn thought as she walked back to Collinwood. Hallie, David's wife.

It made sense, when you thought about it. Just as Laura, she had married David, abandoned him, and then came back to claim her son.

Just as Laura had done...

Of course, Laura had been a phoenix, while Hallie was human... But probably there had been a time when Laura had been human, and had traded her humanity for immortality.

She had seen it, as she faced Hallie. She had thought when she came in that it would be another nasty, petty, name calling episode. And then the truth had hit her.

And as Amy had predicted, that revelation had fueled her anger, and made her lash out in veritable fury at Hallie,... Who probably had been amused by her loss of control, and the sense of power it gave her...

And then the cunning had taken over, as she, as if realizing how it would come out in court, tried to apologize and grovel, while dabbing at the blood flowing from Hallie's nose with the linen she had carried with her...

And now that she knew that she knew, she felt fear, fear that the anger that had carried her had masked... Eliot's own mother, David's wife... the young girl who had been their guest... Eliot Stokes' niece...

Who could you trust in this world?

And the thought that came to her. David had repeated his father's life. Did she repeat her mothers?

She was not a prisoner in her own home, unwilling to leave, chained by a supposed corpse... She was not keeping guard over an empty trunk, and Adam was with her...

But didn't she know, oh, so well, that there are many ways to chain yourself, and many prisons of her own devising...

Did she really think that all problems could be solved by her checkbook?

She had tried to make friends, she tried... but it had proven hard. She could make friends but not keep them... Or rather, she got tired of them...

And Adam... did she ever notice that he was trying? Maybe clumsily, but he tried.

And her, did she ever try? Yes, maybe for a couple of weeks, And then...

And then it was so much more comfortable to go back to the old Carolyn...

And at one time it had been endearing, or at least she had been told so...

But at certain age you are no longer cute, and those things that people overlook in a young girl, become unbearable in a grown woman...

And she refused to grow up...

Boyfriends came and boyfriends went in her life. Joe Haskell, Burke Devlin, Buzz Hackett, Tony Peterson, Adam, Chins Jennings, Jeb Hawkes... When one left, there was another, and another...

But that was no longer true.

Didn't she love Adam? If not, then she should set him free. And if she did, then she should fight for him.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

"There is nothing we can do?" Barnabas asked, for the umpteenth time, to Julia who shrugged.

"I asked Angelique, who basically gave me the runaround. She does not think we can do anything, but does not want to admit it."

"I do not like to admit it, either."

"We have been defeated, it is not pleasant to face it, but it is the truth."

"I refuse this to be the end. I fought too long and hard for David to lose him how."

"Do you have any idea how to storm the Temple of the Sun? "

"No, but..."

"You could not approach it without being burned away. And if you were human, you could never reach it...Megan cannot do it, that's why she is on a wild goose chase...And Angelique... Angelique does not seem to have any answers."

Barnabas sighed.

"At least, after the solstice, we will know that Eliot is safe, and we'll be able to bring Urien back."

"Yes, that much we can do."

George came in as they were bemoaning their impotence.

"I will be going to Egg City soon." he told them. "There is something there that needs looking after."

"Something I should know?"

George sighed. "I will talk to you about it after the solstice. Now you are in no mood to listen."

"But you will tell me."

"Of course. There is something else that I want to do before then. Something that I want to be sure about... Have you considered that Eliot might be safest with his mother?"

"No, his mother does not know how to protect him. Eliot is warded now. And I do not think hat she is the best person to have him."

Of course, Carolyn was family, and Hallie wasn't. There was no point in talking to him. He could tell when Barnabas' mind was miles away. There were things that needed to be said and done.

But not after the solstice, and not after Urien had been taken care of.

* * *

It was night, and time to go to bed. She needed to find the Hanged Man as he slept. She needed to summon him and guided him to Amy.

She wondered if she could ask Amy more about Hallie, and about the danger they were all in. But it might not be wise. Amy had to keep her contacts to the minimum, in the space of dreams... And there would be plenty of time for questions when this was over... or it would not matter...

She wondered when she would have to turn over the blood stained linen... Well, she would probably find out...

She prepared herself to bed. Single bed. She should be lying with Adam, not alone, but after his outburst, Adam had decided to sleep on the couch. Not until she decided what to do with her marriage would he come back... if he ever did...

It did not matter... not now.

Sleep came slowly, as the mist of the corridors seeped under her eyelids.

The time had come for her to find the Hanged Man...

It was so obvious, of course... The Hanged Man... life in suspension. Something that should happen, but had not happened, that you had to wait for... A resolution not yet there. A bad decision that could not be undone.

The Hanged man could be cut down and released. Could be cut down and be punished further. Or could remain hanging there for a long time...

She knew the door in front of her. She hesitated for a moment, then knocked on it.

Adam rose easily from the bed and opened the door.

"Carolyn"? he said with surprise. "are you coming for me?"

"You must come with me."

"Why?"

Carolyn looked at him, pained. Did she have to say it? Did she have to admit that she had been wrong, that they could still have a chance, if she was willing to work at it? That the time had come for the Hanged Man to be released?

"It is important, Adam, very important. You _must_ come with me."

Adam wanted to challenge her, mock her for needing him now. but he did not.

_This might be your last chance_", he thought as he followed her.

So he followed her, and in no time they were in the corridors.

Carolyn sighed. She wanted tot talk to Adam, tell him of what she had come to realize, ask him if they still had a chance.

But that was not why she entered his dreams. She had a duty to bring him to Amy.

Whatever she wished to tell him, she could tell him in the light of day.

They reached the door, which opened slightly to let Adam pass. She turned and faced him. "You must go inside, alone." she gave him the card.

She stood there, seeing him walk into the room from which she was now barred. Saw the door close, and knew that she would return before Adam came out again...

Whatever she wanted to say to him, would have to wait for the light of day...

Adam faced Amy.

"Have you brought the card with you?"

"Yes."

"Lay it on the table."

Adam did so."

"Do you claim this card as yours?"

"I do."

"Why do you claim it?"

"I claim the Hanged Man because, like him, I am in a suspended state. I am waiting for something to happen, but I am not sure what. I know that it is greatly my fault that I now hand upside down, that I cannot seek the path ahead for myself. I have been given a while to ponder my own failings which brought me to such a state, but that knowledge might not be enough to sever the rope that holds me."

"You have achieved a measure of self-knowledge. And indeed, the Hanged Man represents the state previous to self-knowledge, and it such knowledge that will set him free. So that it both symbolized unresolved conflict and resolution."

"So there is hope for me and Carolyn?"

"You must both seize it."

"I see.."

"You have answered well." Amy said. "This is indeed your card. Do you now why I have called you here?"

"No, I was not told."

"There is danger threatening Collinwood"

"About David?"

"Yes. The danger has not gone away yet. Are you willing to help against it?"

"Why not? Carolyn might even be grateful and notice me again."\

"You agree, then?"

"Yes. What must I do?"

"There is one thing that you must acknowledge before you can be of use, one that you do not wish to do, yet it is part of the self-knowledge that you need to cut yourself free."

"What do you mean, I do not want to acknowledge?"

"You suspect it, don't you?"

"No... I don't"

"Only you can cut the rope and only one knife will sever it."

Adam shook his head.

"What is it that you don not wish to acknowledge?"

"I do not wish to acknowledge it because it isn't true."

"What isn't true?"

"That I am Barnabas' son!"

"And you seek to deny it, and too many of your actions are an effort to deny it, and to hurt him... That's why you married Liz and why you made so many bad decision. And may continue to do so, in spite of your best intentions."

"Enough!"

"You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. Remember that, Adam."

"Only it is not the truth."

"What is the truth?'

"Does it matter?"

"It does if you wish to cut yourself free."

"Barnabas Collins is not my father."

"You exist because of him. He did not will it so, but still it is his life force that animated your body."

"For his convenience. I was just a side effect, one that he could not wait to get rid of."

"So he was a lousy father. Still, he IS your father."

'All right. Same as Robert Loomis is Willie's father?"

"Yes. You got a rotten father... But he is the only father you got."

"All right, I can accept him that way. No better than that old lush, Loomis."

"So you know that you carry part of him with you."

"Unfortunately."

"You must use your connection with him, to find the box I need."

"Which box?"

"Willie Loomis will show you the way. He has constructed a wooden star, which at the right time will be your beacon. But to do so, you must take into yourself enough of Barnabas' nature."

Adam paled. "His nature?"

"You must call on the old link, on your inheritance from him to draw enough of the vampire nature into you. Enough that you will need blood to provide the energy for what you must do. Enough that you can turn into a bat or mist and fly up. But able to stand the rays of the sun... You are to penetrate the Temple of the Sun, and retrieve the box there."

"That's what I need to do?"

"Yes."

"And I will be free of him afterwards?"

"Yes."

"Then I will do it."

"Good. There is one more thing. Take a card."

Adam did.

"It is the Moon."

"You must seek the one to whom this card belongs and give that person this card."

"But who is this person?

"You will know when the time comes."


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Adam was gone and Amy looked at the ladder she was building...

The Hanged Man had come, with the Moon to come soon after. If the Hanged Man truly desired to cut his rope once and for all.

What did the ladder meant?

First folly and ignorance. Then the desire to help, but lack of wisdom in doing so. The abyss under the Fool's feet, but with the promise of help from a dog - or wolf.. Then the Well Meaning Hierophant, whose goodwill was tainted by ignorance, but still was willing. And then Wisdom, the High Priestess, who shook off her ignorance to join the fight.

The Seven of Wands promised that there would be difficulties, but not insurmountable. The Tower of Destruction, meant great danger, but also the promise of victory, announcing the destruction of the enemy. The Page of Wands. Steadfastness was needed. The Queen of Coins, a warning that the prize may be lost by concentrating on the wrong things. The Hanged Man... Still no resolution...

It was up to the Hanged Man to cut himself loose and reach for the Moon.

* * *

Adam woke up.

It was a dream, only a dream... No way that he was going to do that.

Not even for what it promised?

There was so much anger in him at Barnabas. He disguised it, tried to forget it, but in the end it gnawed at him.

All he wanted from Barnabas is that he got out of his life...

And yet dreams had a way of coming true in Collinwood...

He turned, and he saw the Moon card by his side...

He had no choice. He had to go do it... Because like it or not, it would set him free...

It was a short walk to the Old House. Getting in was no problem. He had an extra key, or rather Carolyn had... and Barnabas most of the time forgot to lock his door.

It was daytime, and Barnabas would be in his coffin. In the room behind the library.

Inside he found Willie Loomis. "You need this" Willie said, giving him the star, before he asked...

It was true... he could not get away.

Adam said nothing. There were too many memories with Willie, and if he started talking about them there would be no end of it. Willie saw his face and flinched.

Adam entered the room and looked at Barnabas.

"You never cared, did you?" he asked bitterly " I was born because it was convenient for you. And yet, how different are you from other men who become fathers because they want to get laid and can't be bothered with precautions? Still, it was wrong, you should have cared more..."

Willie stared, silently, at him.

"And yet you did care, in the beginning. Maybe I was too tough for you, maybe you did not know what to do with me. But then it was much easier for you to say that I was evil and incorrigible, and that I should be shot down for everybody's safety... It was as if I had become the evil that you once had been guilty of You thought that because I had drained off your life force and your ailment from you, that I had also taken away your capacity for evil. That if you shot me, you'd be rid of it forever. But it was not true. My evil was at most the evil of ignorance. Yours was a different kind and never left you. But then you had time enough to ponder on it, time enough to know the truth about it."

Willie nodded.

"Perhaps I can forgive you for it, perhaps even admit that I would not have done any better. But I am still hurt because my father never cared for me, and that hurt is not in your power to heal."

He touched Barnabas' face "It might have been different, you know. It is a pity, really."

He touched his forehead to Barnabas' and felt something flow into him, like an electric current. The link between them had opened again, and again more than just the life force was pouring out of Barnabas.

Adam felt his teeth lengthen and he felt a yearning inside that he knew was for blood.

He stepped back and looked at Willie. "I need." he said.

Willie shivered, thinking of all the harm he had done to Adam in the past, but still pulled up his sleeve, offering his wrist.

"Do not take too much." he said.

Adam felt tempted to drain him. But no, if he did, he could not cut the rope. He just drank a few mouthfuls, leaving Willie standing up.

Now to deliver the Moon card, and carry out the rest of his mission.

Chris and Oriana were together, talking about what to do, if to continue waiting for a way to rescue Amy, or to admit they were beaten and go back to Florida. He knocked at their door and came in.

When Chris opened the door, he gave them the Moon card, and stepped in... He needed werewolf blood for what he was to do.

Chris stated at the card and saw Amy's face in it. Oriana looked over his shoulder, and her eyes locked with Amy's too...

The curtains were closed, protecting them from the prying rays of the sun. Adam needed strength to fly into the sun, so he bared his fangs. Chris opened his collar and let him feed. Then Oriana.

"Thank you" Adam said before turning to mist.

In mist form, as if he was water vapor he climbed up the rays of the Sun, in search of the box that Amy said was at the end of his journey.

The palace of the Sun awed him, but he did not linger in it. He saw the slaves going about their tasks and was a bit surprised to see Amy among them...

He saw the golden cage where they kept David.

He almost lingered there, as he recognized the woman who was speaking to David, but did not. The wooden star, which he carried even in this dematerialized form, guided him and tugged at his as if it was a leash.

"You will come to accept, it David." he heard Hallie say.

Adam continued in his journey, There seemed to be hundreds of doors, miles of corridors, and immense chambers. He wondered if there was an end to this place, and whether he would reach it.

The throbbing caused by the star accelerated and became warmth. He was close to his goal.

There in a niche in the wall, there was a glow, and through it, he could see a rectangular shape.

He had found it. He tried to touch it, but he went through it.

Of course, he was mist...

He looked around. The corridor was deserted. Not even a slave... Hallie kept it secure from prying eyes...

He changed shape, quickly, and grabbed it. And turned to mist, before whatever alarms Hallie had put in place could react.

Now he had to retrace his steps, through immense halls, infinite corridors, countless doors, wondering if he was getting lost, and if he could tell if he did..

He passed again David in his golden cage, then the slaves, Amy among them..

Then he was outside, riding the sunshine down.

Willie was waiting for him.

"Do you have it?"

"Yes. Here it is. I now have to return this to him..."

"Not yet. You may yet need it later on." Willie said. "When all is done, you can return it to him."

* * *

Oriana stared at the Moon card. The dog and the wolf, howling together at the Moon. Or two wolves standing at attention, waiting for the next command.. Faithful guardians of the homes shown in the background, receiving the life-giving water after suffering the onslaught of deadly heat during the day.

"We will know what do to when the time comes." Chris said.

"Yes" She was glad now that they delayed going back to Florida. They might be able to right this thing once and for all now."

Neither of them spoke Amy's name. Nothing should be said until the time was upon them.

* * *

Tomorrow the solstice would come, and she would claim Eliot. George Brant very likely would take him at gunpoint and give it to her. Tomorrow...

She only had to survive one more night... Survive one more cold night.

* * *

Barnabas did not awaken with the dusk. He seemed dead... far deader than he usually did. It was as if... as if the phoenix had reached down and killed him.

George took out his gun. He had to put a stop to him. Eliot was not safe at Collinwood. Eliot was not safe with Carolyn, and her ancestry. She should be safe with his mother.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Trask opened the Church for all to come. Willie, Angelique, Buffy, Jessica, were already in . Chris and Oriana would come later, as would Edmund, Carolyn, and Adam, carrying Eliot with them.. Trask looked at Angelique, and accepting what his role would be, he divested himself of his own robes.

Willie laid down the wooden star and the box retrieved by Adam.

* * *

Adam, Carolyn, and Edmund got into the car, carrying Eliot, as well as the things that Amy had asked them to get for the ceremony: Eliot's hair lock, blood, and fingernail parings,, as well as Hallie's bloodstains.

Adam tied the safety belt and was about to turn on the car, when he found himself facing the barrel of a gun.

"Going somewhere?' George asked.

* * *

Chris and Oriana entered the church now, carrying the Moon card with them."

"We are ready to go now." they said.

"We need Carolyn, Adam, and Edmund, with Eliot, before we can go." Angelique said.

* * *

"You are not taking the baby anyway. It belongs with its mother." George said, as he made Adam and Carolyn get out. "I do not know what you have planned, but it will not happen. Come the solstice, Eliot will be safely away from Collinsport."

"With his mother?" Carolyn said, horrified. "But she's the danger, she's the phoenix!"

"You are the one with phoenix blood. You are the danger. You, the result of ages of genetic engineering by occult races, Eliot is not safe with you."

"You are Wong, Sheriff." Edmund said. "Eliot is safe with us."

"Kid, you do not know half of it."

Adam said nothing. He had not returned Barnabas' nature to him. He still was a vampire. He dematerialized and quickly reformed behind Brant, grabbing his gun hand, and biting hard on his throat.

"You will come with us, Brant." he said. "And when we are done, we will speak no more of this." He took Brant's handcuffs from him and used on his wrists. "Make no trouble and everything will be all right."

"Adam what..."

"Part of what has been happening. Now get into the car and let's go."

* * *

Angelique put wards to form a barrier around the church. No one Creature of Light should be able to cross the threshold from dawn to dusk.

"Where are then?" Willie asked. "The should be here."

Then there was the sound of a car approaching and stopping.

"They are here."

They came in, Carolyn holding Eliot, and Adam pushing the handcuffed and gagged George forward.

"He tried to take Eliot from us. " he said.

"But he's under her power, we can't"

"He is not under her power. Just deluded." Angelique said. "He would not be able to enter otherwise. Well, let's find a chair and tie him there."

Once Brant was secured Angelique turned to Carolyn and Edmund "Do you have it?"

"Yes."

"Then we can begin."

Angelique laid down the wooden star on the altar, and below it Eliot's hair, nail parings, and blood.

"I claim the protection that this star offers for Eliot Collins"

"So be it" the others chanted in response.

She laid down Hallie's blood.

"I claim protection against this enemy. May the evil turn upon itself."

"So be it."

She laid down the box next to the linen.

"May this box which holds two of her slaves be smashed and those imprisoned be free."

"So be it."

She took the set of Tarot cards and began laying them down."

"This is the card of the Sun which opposes us." she set it next to the linen that held Hallie's blood." "And this is Justice. which is the basis for the ladder that we will use to reach the Sun."

They all nodded, in silenced, only disrupted by George's grunts.

"The first rung of the ladder is the Fool, a condition that we seek to escape. The second is the Hierophant, which is willingness to do what is right, but prone to error. The High Priestess, which shows the wisdom do to what is needful.. Yet wisdom is not enough without willingness to act, in all ways, great and small. The Seven of Wands shows this willingness not to be overwhelmed by the obstacles. Then the Tower of Destruction, a call to caution in our deeds. The Page of wands which shows steadfastness in all., and the interior calm needed. He will not be dissuade from doing what is right by any obstacles. The Queen of Coins is another warning, about preoccupation with other matters that distract us. The Hanged Man warns us that any conflicts need to be faced and resolved to keep them from intruding.

She held the Moon card, the last throw.

"The Moon card says that conflicts are resolved, all obstacles removed, and now is the time to act.

Chris and Oriana rose and came to her side.

"The spread is complete, and the Sun is at the end of it." Angelique said. "One more card is needed to make it possible, and it is you who must choose it."

Chris extended his hand.

"You, as her brother, must take the next card. She will guide your hand."

Chris did.

"The Chariot." Angelique said.

She laid the card over the box and spoke a few words over it. Then she picked up a heavy candlestick and smashed the box with it.

Mist escaped from it.

"You two are free." she said.

Two wraiths formed themselves behind the altar.

"Zoya Zalisky. Yolanda Overton." Angelique said " You have been set free, but not fully. You must help us destroy the one who imprisoned you before she can recapture you."

"We understand." Zoya answered

"We shall do as you say." Yolanda echoed.

"Use your power to make the Chariot be real, not just painted cardboard"

"No!"

It was Hallie, hurling herself against the doors, only to be stopped by Angelique's wards.

"It is too late Hallie!"

"I command Barnabas. I command the werewolves. Bring my son back to me!"

"You command no one. The blood that Zeb gave you had been laced with deadly nightshade. There is no power in it now. Even if Barnabas was awake he would not obey you. As the werewolves do not obey you."

"No!" Hallie protested again.

"You have lost, Hallie Stokes Collins. Think of Ra's wrath and think whether you should ask for our protection against him."

"Zoya! Yolanda! I know that you are inside! Obey me!"

"You have no power over them. You still have their hearts, as you do your other salamanders, but their will is free."

'No.! The Solstice is coming. I shall lay siege to this church, and force you to come out, until you give me what is mine!"

There was laughter now, a man's laughter.

"They finally listened to me. They know you know for what you are. And you are going to lose" Robert Loomis said, laughing.

Hallie felt down on her knees, clawing at the door. "Let me in! George Brant! I know that you are there! Bring me my child!"

George shook his head. Bound and gagged as he was, he could not obey. Not even if he wanted to... Of course, Hallie was the phoenix... Why hadn't he seen it?

"You have lost Hallie. Solstice is a long day, but it will be over, and when it is done, you may face Ra's wrath, unless we protect you. Do you wish our protection?

Hallie shivered, then sobbed. "You can't to this to me."

"We must."

"It is Barnabas' fault. He killed me. I was Maude Browning once. I wanted to live, and he strangled me. He did not care... I wanted to make him pay..."

"And your slaves want you to pay for what you done to them. "

Zoya and Yoland moved back and forth with the undulations of their movements becoming a wind. A wind that made the Chariot grow, stand upright, and become three dimensional.

Hallie outside heard what was happening and screamed, knowing what would happen, knowing that Ra would never forgive her for what she had brought to pass.

"The Chariot is ready." Angelique said.

Chris and Oriana mounted it, along with Angelique, and over them hovered Yolanda and Zoya.

The chariot rose in the air, up to the roof, went through it, and disappeared into the night.

Hallie saw it and moaned. It could not happen this. How could she missed what was happening.

* * *

The chariot kept rising under the stars and the moon. They felt the moon bathe them and give them strength. Chris' and Oriana's faces became muzzles with strong, sharp teeth. And the power ran like electricity over Angelique's bare arms.

They were ready now for the assault, and this time, Chris thought, as he snapped his jaws shut, he would be able to pursue those dirty birds, catch them, and tear then with his teeth.

"You must not be overconfident." Angelique warned him. "Yes, we do have power, but there are boundaries to it. Don't forget that we will be fighting on their home ground. All we can do is strike quickly, grab Amy and David, and get back before they have time to recover. And then we will need to stay inside the church, until the solstice is over, for they may want to snatch David back."

Chris nodded comprehension, and tried to restrain the bloodlust rising in him. Oriana took his hand and squeezed it.

Then they saw the bring, blinding light ahead of them. A deadly, burning, water stealing light.

They headed towards it, calling on the strength which they had been given to fight it.

Then they ran into it, cutting through the walls as they had cut through the church, quickly, and without a sound.

The corridors raced in front of them. Red porphyry walls which throbbed and burned, threatening to become an oven.

There were doors and doors that they went through without bothering to open them. Some golden birds flew by, and for a moment Chris was tempted to nip at them, and so avenge the helplessness he had felt when Amy had been taken, but he remembered Angelique's warning.

There was someone standing at the end of the corridor. A woman, naked, her hands extended towards them.

"Amy! Angelique said.

It was her, and as the chariot passed by, she grabbed Oriana's hands, and Chris helped her get inside.

"Your eyes..." Oriana said.

"It is all right." Amy said. "We have to get David. I'll point out the way."

One falcon swooped down on them close, too close. It screeched and would have dived for them. Chris caught it in his muzzle, crushing its bones.

The blood streamed over his mouth and he relished it.

"There will be others coming." Amy said. "We must hurry."

Indeed, they did, and both Chris and Oriana stood at the sides of the chariot, baring their teeth and growling at them. Angelique kept the course steady, and Amy guided her.

There were more birds round the golden cage which held David. And human attendants. It would seem impossible that two wolves would be enough to hold them, but Chris and Oriana tried, snarling at them, catching flesh and tearing it, then letting go, to grab another bird.

Angelique touched the cage and it crumbled.

David stood, dazed. He could not understand that he was free. But Amy's hand reached for his, and he mounted the chariot too.

Chris and Oriana kept snapping their jaws, tearing at whatever was there to be caught, spattering blood and golden feathers all around.

Angelique made the chariot move again, racing through walls and doors, tracing the corridors, and seeking the exit.

They found it, and they were riding into the dark night.

"We are free." David said with wonderment.

"Not yet." Angelique said. "They are coming after us. There is one place where we will be safe, and we are going there.

The Earth below them grew and grew. They began to make out some of its features.

Above them, the falcons congregated. The Night weakened the falcons' powers and slowed them, but still they came. They would not give David up so easily.

"Eliot" David said. "They are after Eliot."

"We know. He is being protected now."

"Halle, she..."

"We know that she is a phoenix, and the one who is behind this. We are breaking her power now."

"You found out?"

"Amy told us what to do, and we did it."

"Amy?" David turned to her. "But she... You mean that she is the one who arranged this?"

"That's why I would not run away with you when you broke out of the cage. It would mean that we would lose the only chance we had."

"And you let me thing... Yes, I see that you had to let me believe it..."

The church rose, welcoming them. They went through the roof, and then they were inside, surrounded by their friends.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

"Dawn will come soon. And we may need greater strength" Angelique said "It is time that we returned to Barnabas what is his" She put her hands on Adam's temples and muttered the incantation words. "He will be here soon."

Just a few minutes later Barnabas flew in, summoned by her power.

"Why do you call me?" he looked around "And why is George tied up?"

"Long story, Barnabas." Amy said. "Enough to say that we have been rescued, me and David, and are now protecting Eliot. Did you see Hallie at the door?"

"Yes..." He had been in too much of a hurry to noticed it.

"She is the phoenix. " David said "same as my mother, And she wants Eliot as a sacrifice. We are doing all we can to stop her."

"And we need you. We need the full power of what you are, a creature for Darkness. "

Between Angelique, Amy, and David they filled him in. Including why George was tied up.

"Surely by now he knows that he has been deceived. We can release him now."

"I do not dare gamble on it." Amy said, wrapping herself on the blanket she had been given as with a mantle. "I am running this now. Angelique helps, but I direct it."

"You?"

"I am the Sybil, That's what I have become."

Barnabas considered it... Too much had happened of which he was not aware of... They probably had kept him ignorant of what was going on... and not just him. Julia and Megan were not there. They probably had not been told...

"What can I do?"

"One thing that you have to do is remain inside. Soon the sun will rise outside, but here it is dark and you are safe. No matter what you hear outside. _do not leave_."

"Yes.."

"We will have to survive until next dusk. And all of us can be lured outside. Unless there is a power that holds us back. Barnabas, you have to be that power. You have to hold all of in with your will."

'Bite them?"

"Not all of them. Jessica is pregnant, and Edmund is too young. But your blood rubbed in their ears should control them. And better to that to everyone, because we need you hungry for what you must do afterwards."

Barnabas accepted it and sat next to George. "Can I at least take out his gag?"

"Yes. But if he starts talking about giving up or going outside, put it back on.."

They all sat down to wait. It would be a long wait.

They passed water among them. They were thirsty, and they all drank it. But water was the enemy of fire. they should drink it when the pressure from outside became too great.

Jessica wondered about Zeb. Did he miss her? Did he worry about her? Would he come looking for her?

It might be torture, what Zeb might be imagining now.

Buffy also worried about Frank and Lyndon, and Willie about Louella and Pearl. What if those creatures, not being able to reach their goal vented their anger at them? Angelique tried to reassure them that there was a cloak of protection to them but still they worried.

The sun was slowly rising. The solstice was about to begin.

The tension grew inside them. They knew what was coming and braced themselves to withstand it.

The hymn came to Anselm Trask's lips, as he knew that the words were true "Mine eyes have seen the coming of the glory of the Lord, he's trampling of the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored. He's loosed the fateful lighting of this terrible swift sword, his truth is marching on."

They all joined in the chorus, putting in their hope for their triumph in the battle.

"He's sounded forth the trumped that shall never call retreat. He's sifting the hearts of men before the Judgment seat. Oh, be swift my soul, be jubilant my feet, his truth is marching on."

Julia Ward Howe's words echoed in them. She too had seen the dreadful battle come, she too had seen the trial finally reach those who had allowed evil to go unchecked, being forced to deal with them when they no longer could pretend that it wasn't there, when it was out of control, and they almost despaired of being able to overcome it.

Zoya and Yolanda were the first to sense it, the beating of the wings against the walls and roof of the church. The windows were carefully covered, but they too were buffeted by merciless gusts.

"Jessica!" Zeb's voice came to them as he began to beat on the door. "Jessica! Come out of there! You don't understand!"

"Carolyn!" It was Quentin. "Come back to me! I love you! We can be together again!"

Jessica lowered her head, in pain. Zeb had to be hurt, as there was no other way. She did not relish it.

Carolyn put her hand over Adam's., trying to reassure herself that what Quentin said was not true. But the doubt hovered in her.

Barnabas knew what was tearing them, making them want to leave. Only his willpower could hold them. He concentrated on making them want to stay. All day long.

"We must be strong," Anselm said.

The walls were beaten by gigantic wings and arms, as the doors were battered by Zeb's and Quentin's fists.

They held hands together and knelt, knowing that the storm outside was deadly, but that it will pass.

"We must leave" George said. "We..." He did not finish. Barnabas had gagged him again. "I am sorry George. We are so close, we cannot lose it."

The full fury of the Sun was upon the church. How long could they last? And would the cloak of protection hold around Louella and Pearl, Frank and Lyndon? No way to know...

What if Zeb of Quentin took out a gun and started shooting? The might, except that there was no guarantee that the bullet would not hit David, or worse, Eliot. Hallie considered it and kept the onslaught on what she knew was safe.

She could not command Barnabas, she could not command the werewolves. And Amy had power of her own, which was greater than she imagined...

She could not cross the threshold. And, with horror, she knew that she could not walk away from it either. She was caught in between, her fate depending on the outcome of the battle.

If she lost... If she lost she would know the full wrath of Ra... The punishments that she had inflicted on Zoya and Yolanda would be caresses compared to what was in store for her... Ra was powerful, Ra was merciless and cruel...

"It is the longest day of the year" Buffy said "and we have to get through it."

It was a long time, and fear was not the only enemy. There was boredom, impatience, the sense of confinement...in a way they were grateful when the onslaught grew stronger and they had to link hands and join forces again, instead of just hanging around.

They had some food and water, and access to the church's bathrooms, which was a relief...

The solstice was such a long day...

The seconds accumulated easily, the seconds not so easily, and the hours seemed to take centuries to pass...

Yet they passed, and they knew when noon was on them as the worst onslaught came then.

Then noon passed and there was a lull. There would be other onslaughts, but none as hard as that one...

Only less than nine hours...

Zeb and Quentin still beat the door, still hollered, but no one could make out what they were saying. Barnabas had taken the gag off George again, and he remained silent, speaking only to thank Barnabas when he offered him to eat and drink.

Ever so slowly, ever so painfully, the sun began to set and Darkness began to hold sway over the world again.

"We made it" Carolyn said.

In the threshold, Hallie sobbed. She had lost. She _was_ lost.

Amy opened the door. "Do you wish to claim Sanctuary with us?" she asked.

Hallie sobbed again.

"You can return to Ra, to be at his mercy, to him that has none. Or you may be slave to a sorceress until she decides to let you go. Which do you choose?'

Hallie looked at her with desperate eyes."

'You must become a Creature of Darkness to be under our protection. You shall endure a time of service as such. And when your service is done, you may be free again. Do you accept our protection?"

"I...I.. will"

"What do you choose, Hallie Stokes Collins"

"I accept your terms. I bet your protection. Take me."

Amy nodded in the direction of Barnabas. She must become a Creature of Darkness. He understood what it meant, and he knew why they had wanted him hungry.

Adam understood and let out a sight of relief. He had returned Barnabas' powers just in time...

Barnabas lifted Hallie in his arms and carried her inside the church. Over the altar.

Anselm tried to protest, but remembered that he had agreed to this. All of this.

Barnabas bit into her. The blood flowed slowly, and slowly he drank. This time he would not stop... this time he would not feel satiety until it was finished... He would drain enough of Hallie's blood so that she died of it, and rose again as a vampire. And then her fate would be Amy's to decree.

Then it was done. He got up again. Hallie Stokes Collins was dead. She would not remain dead. She would have a chance for redemption, but it was up to her to grab it.

She laid on the altar. She had once been Maude Browning, and Barnabas had left her body on Reverend Trask's bed. Now she laid on another Trask's altar. It was full circle, But in the meantime many other injuries were inflicted, more evil had come, more innocents had suffered, and there would be circles that would take a long while to close...

So it was. A wrong decision would echo through the centuries and among strangers, and the idea of "making it right" was a pious hope, no more...

At least now, they were safe at last.

Buffy rushed out to her home, to check on Frank and Lyndon. Willie, to see Louella and Pearl. Barnabas unlocked George's handcuffs and let him up. "I am sorry." he said.

"Not as sorry as I would have been if I had brought Eliot to her." George said, sighing. "Now let's see if Urien is al right."

"He will be. " Amy reassured them. "I will now free the salamanders'

Angelique had disappeared with Hallie. They wondered where she might be, but shrugged. They had offered Hallie protection, and the terms were up to Amy and Angelique...

* * *

Phyllis Wick received the still unconscious Hallie.

"She is to be your servant for as long as she needs the lessons you will provide."

"Indeed, she will. She is a vampire, isn't she?"

"Yes."

"There was a time when vampires were slaves to sorcerers... the knowledge of how to handle them is still there."

"Yes." her own experience of slavery and the knowledge of what old time wizards were like made Angelique shudder... But those were the terms, and it was not forever...

"Do you think that she will change? That she will..."

"That she will earn her release? Yes. And maybe sooner than you think. People change, when they have a reason to. You changed, didn't you?"

"Yes. I did...You are right. I do hope she learns, as I did."

* * *

"Yolanda, Zoya. You are free. There may be debts that you two must satisfy, but your service to the phoenix is over."

The two of them nodded in acknowledgment. They joined the other freed salamanders, and all of them glowed for a few seconds, and vanished.

"And you, Robert Loomis, we thank you for your warning. Are you satisfied?"

"Just one thing. Tell that high and mighty son of mine, that he cannot say anymore that his worthless old man ever did anything right."

"I shall tell him that."

"Then I will be gone."


End file.
